


Stolen

by myotishia



Series: Thin ice [6]
Category: Torchwood
Genre: Gwen being the big sister that everyone needs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-08
Updated: 2019-10-08
Packaged: 2020-11-27 16:03:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20951141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myotishia/pseuds/myotishia
Summary: A calm weekend is turned upside down when a pause in time covers a jewellery store robbery.





	Stolen

**Author's Note:**

> New reader? Start right [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18551278)

Gwen didn’t mind taking Anwen with her shopping. The pushchair was pretty small and she was a quiet baby as long as there were lights to look at. Tosh and Elise didn’t seem to mind an extra addition to their little group, though Elise seemed to be acting even more cautious around the baby than usual. Tosh placed the handful of shopping bags down as they grabbed a table at the quiet cafe. For all its faults the hazard pay from Torchwood did allow for a few fruitful shopping trips. The group sat, deciding that they would decide what they were getting and get comfortable before going to the counter. 

“I’ll be right back.” Said Tosh, before trotting off to the bathroom. 

Gwen took Anwen from the pushchair. “There we go. That’s better, isn't it.” She smiled, reaching down with one hand. “Bugger, I forgot to get her blanket out before I picked her up. Elise, can you hold her just a sec?” She held out the baby, not waiting for a reply. 

A very flustered Elise automatically put her arms out. “Oh, um, ok… We’re just doing this, are we?... Right.” She blathered as Anwen was placed him her arms. She blinked down at the wriggling infant who stared up, used to being passed from person to person but not sure who this new person was. Whoever they were they were warm so that was a good thing. 

Anwen turned and nuzzled into Elise.

“Um… Sweety. Wrong person. Thank you for not screaming at me though. Please don’t start screaming.” She said nervously.

Anwen reached up in the uncoordinated, flailing, way babies do and grabbed at Eli’s cheek. 

“Wait… So you can see me then?”

Gwen chuckled. “She’s my daughter, of course she’s not frightened of you. Come on, before she starts screaming because you didn’t bring her an offering of food.”

She carefully passed the baby back to her mother, very happy that her worst fears hadn’t been realised. 

“Once you’re fed and aunty Tosh comes back then mummy can have something to eat too.”

“Aunty?”

“That’s how I refer to everyone at work. Some nights I just sit and tell her about my day. Sometimes I think it’s the only thing that gets her to sleep.”

“How do you censor half of the stuff we deal with?”

“With difficulty. In my stories uncle Owen doesn’t even talk.”

“I will give you anything to let me be the one to tell him you call him that.”

“Sorry, uncle Ianto called dibs on that yesterday.”

“Noooo.” Eli lamented. 

Tosh returned and sat in her seat, moving a couple of bags so she could get comfortable.

“It’s been so long since I went out shopping for anything other than food.” She said contentedly. 

Gwen smiled. “Same, just add baby stuff.”

“It has to be fun though. All of those tiny dresses and shoes are just so cute.”

“Problem is she’s growing so quickly she doesn’t get to wear half of them.”

The three winced as a high pitched squealing, like the flash of a camera recharging, shot through them. Anwen fussed, also hearing the noise, but the rest of the people in the cafe didn’t react. Elise tapped her wrist comp’ as if she was checking her watch.

“What is it?” Asked Tosh, unable to fully see the small screen. 

“Time distortion. The sound was the ripples.” She set the screen back to the time and furrowed her brow. “What time does your phone say it is?”

“One twenty three. Why?”

“We’ve lost half an hour.” 

“What?” Asked Gwen quietly, so the other people around them didn’t hear.

Tosh pointed to the vortex manipulator. “It isn’t affected by localised time distortion so the time is always correct. Should we look for the source?” 

“We should… Tell you what. Anwen isn’t going to let me move any time soon so you two go and check it out and I’ll take care of your stuff.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’ll keep a lookout for anything strange.” 

The staff of the jewellery store around the corner were standing outside the doors, gaping at the empty window display. One of the salesmen stood slightly away from the rest of the group. He looked young and out of his depth, most likely a trainee. Tosh approached him.

“What happened?” She asked.

He looked at her and back at the window. “I don’t know. One second everything was fine and then it was all gone.” 

“All gone?”

“Yea. Everything. The display, the draws, everything, empty.”

Tosh turned to Elise. “We should talk to security. See what’s on the cameras.”

Elise agreed and walked towards one of the security guards, who looked just as confused. 

“Excuse me.” She began, pulling her ID from her jacket pocket. “Torchwood. We need to see the security footage from the last half an hour.”

The guard glanced at the ID. “We’ve just called the police. We’re supposed to keep-”

“Not to be rude but they’d just have to give us access anyway. It’s better for everyone involved if you just cooperate.” 

He studied her for a moment, feeling a shudder run down his spine. She wasn’t asking him, it was as if she was simply stating the fact that he would cooperate. 

“This way ma’am.” He said, guiding them to the security office. “I think it would be camera twelve.” 

Tosh sat in front of the computer that controlled the CCTV system, taking a USB stick from her pocket and plugging it into the tower. She opened the footage and slowly tracked back. The change was instantaneous. One frame showed the store with its display full and the next it was empty. 

“The time distortion wasn’t that big, can you see anyone acting suspiciously just before it happened in the area?” Elise asked, watching over Toshikos shoulder. 

“I can’t get a good enough image. I can clean all this up back at the hub and cross reference it with my sensors. I wish I had my laptop with me.”

“We didn’t know we’d be dealing with this today. Think the investigation can wait another hour?”

“Why?”

“I need a coffee and Ianto’s not going to be in to work his magic if we’re going to be working today.”

“Call Jack and I’ll consider it.”

“Yes boss.”

Tosh smiled and blushed lightly, removing the USB stick with the footage from all of the cameras saved to it. 

Walking back into the hub it was eerily quiet. From the quick call Elise had made Jack and Ianto likely wouldn’t be back until the next day so the place was very much empty. After dropping off Anwen with her father Gwen was free to help. Often, even these days, she was out of her depth but this case was in her skill set. No matter what had been used it was still just a robbery. Tosh sat at her workstation and woke it up, logging in. She was thankful that the Torchwood system was fast. Slow computers were a nightmare that she didn’t need in her life. As soon as she plugged the USB stick in the video files popped up on her screen. 

“Ok. This is the view of the front of the store and this is the view inside.” 

Gwen looked over the images on the screen. “Well, no one from inside the store is out of place. Same for outside. How wide was the time pause effect?.”

“Let’s see… Not that far. These are the feeds that would sit inside the activation radius.”

Six more windows opened and played the short clip from just before the time pause and after. Gwen ruled out three of them as they would make escape very awkward for the thief. Finally, she spotted a figure that moved at least three feet in the space of a single frame.

“There.” She pointed. “The one in the hoodie. They’re trying to hide their face from the camera and they jump like there’s a skip in the footage.”

Tosh zoomed in to the figure and sharpened the image. “I can’t get enough of their face to compare it to the police database. Let me see if they move into another cameras view.” She followed the figure through three different areas then bingo, they bumped into someone and turned, giving the camera a few frames that showed their face clearly. “Got you.”

The image, once processed, showed a man in his early twenties. His dark hair scruffy, but in that stylistic way that took hours and still looked as if you’d just got out of bed. 

Tosh lent back in her chair. “It might take a while to cross reference the image with the police, passport and DVLA databases.”

“What if they aren’t on any of those?” Asked Elise, sipping the last dregs of her iced latte through a plastic straw. 

Gwen smiled. “Then we do it the old fashioned way.”

“Huh?”

“We ask people.”

“Social interaction.” She sneered in exaggerated disgust. “Well, if we’re going to be running around then I need to go and get changed.” She wandered off to see what clothes she had in her locker.

“I have to ask… Elise said she got some new piercings and I can’t tell if she was joking or not.”

Tosh chuckled. “It’s true. It was a surprise when she got home that night. I wasn’t so sure about the whole thing but she makes it work.”

“Couldn’t the metal get dangerous?”

“She has soft plastic ones she uses just in case, the same as her earrings.”

“I’ll need to ask about the earrings. Did she say anything about the attack the other day?”

Tosh frowned lightly. “No. I think it shook her up more than she’d like to admit. Jack said she looked terrified when he found her.”

“I shouldn’t have let her go off alone.”

“No. You couldn’t have known… I’ve found no way of identifying it or tracking it though.”

“Jack said it wanted a body but you’d think it would be relatively easy to find one that it could target.”

“Maybe it’s a compatibility issue. Elises biology is rather unique at this point.”

“Shouldn’t that make it more difficult?” 

“It should but there’s too many factors to say anything for definite. Whatever it was it was strong.”

“Yea?”

“She’s still got the bruises around her wrist.” 

“And… How are you and Owen holding up?”

“We’re fine. Neither of us have experienced the effects so it’s not feeling real yet. To be honest we haven’t even talked about it. I hope we won’t have to for a while.” For a moment she looks deeply concerned but she brushes it off. “We still don’t know how our thief is stopping time.” Tosh reopened the footage and watched the man carefully to see if he was activating anything. He was definitely playing with something in his hoodie pocket but he never took it out. Even following him to the car park, he didn’t once take whatever it was out of his pocket. The car he got in to was registered as stolen so that was no help. A warning popped up on the screen of something sliding its way through the rift into the adjacent railway station to the hub. The station was still locked down with the flood door and whatever it was didn’t seem to be that big. 

“I installed a few cameras down there since Elises contact came through last time. Let’s see what the rift just gave us.” The new feed showed a tall, black haired, possibly female figure. She walked through with purpose, as if she knew exactly where she was going. Tosh called down to Elise. “You should get back up here. Someone just came through the rift in the old station.”

Elise answered, sounding more annoyed than worried. “Send me a picture to my phone.”

“Ok… You sound like you’re not having the best time down there.”

“I just get the feeling I know who it is…. Yep. As I thought. I’ll deal with her, can you open the flood door?”

“Are you sure? You shouldn’t go down alone.”

“She’s going to end up talking to me either way. We can open the door or she’ll open it for us and I don’t want to be the one who has to repair that door.”

“What do you mean? What is she?”

“That’s one of Rofocales forms. I’ll deal with her. You can both deal with our thief without me.”

“Eli this is-”

“I know. Tosh, just trust me on this.”

Tosh sighed and set the flood door to open.

Gwen didn’t feel right leaving. “Are you sure she’ll be ok?”

“I have to trust her judgement, otherwise I’d have a breakdown every time she left the house.”

“I suppose… Her contact just doesn’t sit right with me. It’s not even about them being alien it’s… They act like they own her.”

“I know, but Eli wouldn’t have survived in the rift without them. There’s not much she can do about it.”

“I’ll try and talk to her later. This is the address. I just hope Jeremy is feeling like playing along.” Gwen parked and surveyed the house. Jeremy was a petty thief and a vandal, mostly because he didn’t need the money but loved the thrill and he’d been so spoilt he thought he could get away with murder. His father was a lawyer and his mother was the kind of parent that thought her ‘baby boy’ could do no wrong. It didn’t matter if he was an obnoxious brat, even in his twenties, he was still her perfect angel. Thankfully, Torchwood didn’t care much for what was legal and what was technically not, and lawyers couldn’t touch them. The house was much too large for a single person but its size wasn’t about occupancy, it was about status. 

“He’s upstairs.” Said Tosh, wearing her own version of the lens that she’d given to Jack. 

“Does that show where the device could be?”

“As it isn’t alive and not currently active, no.” 

“Old fashioned way it is.”

“Aren’t we knocking on the door?”

“He’d never let us in without a warrant and a call to his father. The lock’s all yours.”

“It makes my life so much easier when everything has digital locks.” Tosh said softly, amused that a security pass system had been installed. One that she knew could be overridden easily by unhooking the front plate and typing in the default security pin. The door clicked open quietly. 

“Are you sure you’re not a wizard?” Gwen said quietly, tiptoeing into the house. 

The living room was filled with boxes upon boxes of all kinds of jewellery, from cheap costume necklaces to diamond rings that cost more than some cars. Gwen took a picture and sent it to Andy, telling him to give them half an hour to get what they needed to done. A thud from upstairs made the two jump. They redied their weapons and silently waited for him to get to the bottom of the stairs so it would be harder for him to run. The moment he turned the corner from the stairs Gwen ordered him to freeze. He actually had the gaul to laugh.

“Guns? Really? I don’t think that’s legal. Neither is breaking and entering.” He smirked. 

“If you don’t cooperate we will shoot.”

“You won’t get the chance.” He hissed holding up a small device. Making a split second decision she tackled him, grabbing onto the item as it activated. 

Elise stepped into the tunnel, appreciating that there were a few lights down there now. She braced as she was pulled into a hug.

“My favourite mortal. I was here to surprise you.” Rofocale grinned. 

“And you did. What are you here for?” 

“Can’t I just visit?”

“I’d rather you didn’t. The rift isn’t a bus service.”

“Then start visiting me again.” She lifted Elises chin but she pulled away.

“I can’t. It’s exhausting just trying to survive there. Did you come to tell me about the being who wants to use me like a puppet?”

Rofocale frowned deeply. “He’s already attempted to convince you? Very bold of him.”

“Convince me?”

“He can’t take a body without expressed permission.”

“So who is he and why does he want my body?”

“His name is Asmodei and he wants your body so he can move around this world of yours using your unique abilities. Honestly I’d say just let him have this fragile flesh and become what you could be.”

“I’d rather be human.” Elise growled.

“It’s going to happen eventually. If you need help then I could easily separate you.” 

“My answer is no. It has always been no and it will always be no. What can I do to get rid of this Asmodai?”

“It’s not going to be that simple. He’s on the same level as Abaddon. He’s just not as open with his destruction. He’s a being that revels in extreme emotion, it fuels him. He is fire. He’s that hatred that burns through you and sends your vision red. What colour were his eyes when you saw him?”

“Green I think.”

“Then he’s still very weak. Did he… Did he hurt you?”

“Other than a bruised wrist I’m fine.”

She took Elises hand and studied the deep, angry, bruising that formed the shape of a large hand print. “Human bodies are so fragile. You’re like flowers, so beautiful then gone before you can understand even a tiny part of your place in the universe.” She kissed the damaged skin and the pain was washed away, replaced by a menthol like chill. “Better?”

“Thanks. Any chance you can help me deal with Asmodai from your side?”

“I’ll see what I can do but that will require payment.”

Elise looked to the floor and sighed. “What kind of memory do you want?”

“Let me think… Something dramatic… You humans celebrate your birth once a year, don’t you? I want one of those. Have you ever had one that ended in drama. I love human drama.”

“I can think of one.”

“I’ll take it.” 

“Just be gentle. I don’t want to have to explain to my partners later.” Elise tried to prepare herself for what she knew was about to happen.

Rofocale took Elises head in her clawed hands. “Just close your eyes and it’ll be over soon. I’ll make sure you’re put where your little friends can find you to recover.”

“Just please, make it quick. I don’t know how many more of these I have in me.”

“Don’t worry, I don’t break my things. Especially when they’re as interesting as you.”

Gwen and Jeremy hit the floor, the device being thrown to the corner of the room. He pathetically tried to bat her away as she wrestled him onto his front with his hands behind his back. 

“Let me go you psycho!” He squealed, sounding more like a five year old than a twenty five year old as she bound his wrists. “Police brutality!”

“One, I’m not police, and two, I could have shot you so be glad I chose to just knock you to the floor.” She said as she stood and collected the small device. She turned to hand it to Tosh but she found her colleague frozen in time. 

Jeremy laughed. “You don’t know how to start time again. You’re stuck unless you let me go.” 

“Oh shut up.” She rolled her eyes and turned the metal item over in her hands. She guessed he’d worked out how to use it by accident as it was a bit more complex than a simple on/off button. Toshiko could probably work it out on sight but with her trapped in time Gwen was on her own. There were no clear buttons and she felt no telepathic connection so it was probably touch sensitive. She held it up to the light and could see fingerprints on the polished surface. Resting her thumb over the clearest fingerprint a slight glow emanated from the underside of the device, registering her touch. 

“Hey! Don’t mess with it! You’ll break it!” Jeremy shouted, writhing on the floor.

“Well, you wouldn’t help so I had to work it out for myself.” She teased. “But you could tell me how it works so I don’t.”

“You’ll have to let me go. I need both hands.”

“That isn’t happening. Do you think I was born yesterday?”

“I’m serious. It goes weird if you only use one hand.”

She sat on the bottom step. “How did you work out how to use this?”

“It was given to me by this creepy bloke in a hood. I was going to throw it away but it worked.”

“Can you describe this creepy bloke in a hood?”

“I didn’t exactly see his face. He smelled like fireworks but that’s all I can think of. You can take the jewellery if you want, not like I need it.”

“That’s all going back to where it belongs, same as you.”

“No one can prove it was me. The most I’d get is handling stolen goods and I’m sure I could convince the judge I had no idea it was all stolen. Anyway, if you’re not police then who are you? Last I checked the army and secret service don’t go after thieves.”

“Personally, I’m not after you.”

“So, you just want the time stopper thing?

“I want to turn off the time pausing device. Are you going to tell me how or shall I just start pressing buttons again?” Gwen held it up, knowing neither of them were going anywhere any time soon. 

He furrowed his brow, the cogs in his head whirring, but as he couldn’t escape the tightest handcuffs he’d ever felt his only shot was helping. “Fine!” He huffed and Gwen could swear he called her a bitch under his breath. “Put your thumbs on either side and slide them toward you.”

She was sceptical but as, if she were to get frozen or hurt, he wouldn’t be able to escape she did as he said. The lights changed colour and the sounds of life all around came back. 

“Thanks. We’ll be leaving now.”

“What?! Let me go!”

“The police will let you go when they get here.” Gwen smiled to herself as she handed the device to Tosh.

“I can’t believe he just thought you’d let him go.” Tosh marvelled as she walked back into the hub.

“I know. I told him that a cell was where he’d end up but apparently that translates to: I’m your best friend now, off you go.”

She looked around the hub, expecting Elise to be at her desk with her feet up. She wasn’t. At first Tosh didn’t see her but Gwen pointed to the bundle of red blankets on the sofa. 

“Maybe the meeting didn’t go so well.” 

Toshiko approached the pile of fabric and saw Eli sleeping peacefully, strange red marks on her temples. The fabric she was wrapped in looked more like fine fur upon closer inspection.

“Should we wake her?” Gwen asked.

Tosh shook her head and gestured for her to follow, grabbing her laptop and a set of headphones before heading to the meeting room. 

Once inside, with the door closed, Gwen gently broke the silence. “What are you doing?”

“There are cameras leading from here to the station. They were installed when the lights were put in. I trust Eli but I know how she gets into things she can’t handle.” She opened the laptop and brought up the feed, the headphones plugged in so she could hear what was said but could make sure no one heard anything if Jack got back early or Elise crept up on them. 

“You recorded the whole meeting?”

“I technically record everything. You don’t have to watch if you don’t want to.”

“I said I was going to talk to her so I should know what I’m talking about.”

They sat and carefully listened to the conversation until the moment after Rofocale commented about not breaking her things when her form grew and changed. The headphones crackled with a distorted scream and they watched the creatures long talons press into Elises head. 

After what felt like an eternity Elise fell limp and silent before Rofocale wrapped her in her cloak and carried her all the way to place her on the sofa, casually walking away and fading into the ether. 

Tosh sat with her hands clamped over her mouth.

“This has to stop.” Gwen said plainly. “Stay here, I’m going to talk to her.”

“She won’t listen.” She whimpered.

“She will, trust me.”

Elise sat up and rubbed her eyes, her head still pounding.

“Morning.” Gwen smiled as if nothing was amiss. 

Her voice sounded like she’d swallowed broken glass and her throat was sore. “Sorry. Must have fallen asleep after the meeting.”

“Can I ask your advice on something?”

“Sure. What’s wrong?”

She slumped down on the sofa next to Eli. “Well, I’ve got a friend who I’m worried about. She has this friend who she’s known for a while. He helped her out a while ago but… Every time they meet up she comes back and it’s like there’s something missing. Like she’s left part of herself behind.”

“That’s awful. Can she get away? I mean it sounds like this friendship isn’t healthy.” 

“She could but it’s like she thinks she owes him. He’s got contacts that help her family and friends and he’s the type to give her gifts. She says it’s a cultural thing and that’s just how it is where he’s from.”

“That’s not an excuse. You can’t just let someone destroy you just because that’s ok where they’re from, that’s not how cultural exchange works. No amount of help is worth it. Id there anyone who can help her?”

“Plenty but she seems to think they’re better off not knowing. And when they do start to notice she gets defensive and acts like it’s the only way to keep them from getting hurt.”

“This friend sounds more like an abusive partner. If they’re threatening her family and friends then that’s coercion. Want me to talk to her? See what I can do about getting her some distance.”

“Elise… I’ve been talking about you this whole time.”

For a moment she looked shocked and then it began to sink in. “But… I …”

“We saw the meeting. This has to stop, you’re better than this. Whatever happens we’ll work it out. You don’t have to keep doing this.” Gwen said softly, taking Elis hand. “We’re your friends and we’re worried about you. You can barely sit up straight.”

“We can’t deal with this without their help.”

“Yes we can, and we will. No matter what happens we’ll find a way.”

“I… I can’t just break ties with them. Eventually I’m going to end up back there and-”

“But do you? Just think about that. You can open portals into the rift which means you can always get back here. I’m not saying you should declare war against them but you can’t let yourself be used like this. Friends don’t hurt their friends like this.” She brushed back Elises hair to see the red mark more clearly. “They don’t ask for payment, and they don’t treat their friends like things they own.”

“I can’t face them and say that.”

“Then we’ll face them with you. All of us.”

Jack hadn’t been entirely impressed with what he’d been told, especially as Sunday mornings were usually kept for sleeping in and having some quality time with Ianto but he understood why this needed to happen asap. The trek to the old station had felt like it had taken hours and the whole time he could feel an energy from Tosh she’d never given off before. It was pure rage, but in the way a mother wolf feels when her cubs are threatened. Gwen was facing it in a more businesslike way. He was sure she’d seen enough cases of abused partners that would run back because they ‘needed’ their abuser. She knew how important this meeting was. Owen was outwardly calm for now but the way he clenched his fists said he was one wrong word away from trying to throw a punch at the creature, ten foot tall behemoth or not. Ianto had suggested bringing an assault rifle and as tempted as Jack was to say yes he knew it would be useless and just make the situation worse. It was funny how it was one thing Owen and Ianto completely agreed on. They were both thinking with their hearts, not their heads, and Jack couldn’t exactly fault them for that. He felt as angry. Of course he did, but he knew that it was a sensitive situation. Lashing out would get them nowhere but dead, or worse. Elise walked, holding the folded fabric of the cloak close to her chest, the weight of it feeling as if it could pull her down into the void at any moment. She’d refused to let anyone else carry it. The old station just brought back painful memories and it was almost fitting that it would be where she’d have to make a stand. Climbing up to the platform she threw the cloak to the floor where she knew the thinnest line of the rift was. 

“What do we do then?” Asked Owen, his voice softened so he didn’t sound as if he was angry at being there. 

Elise took a deep breath and let it out, listening to the sound echo around the cavernous room. “I call them.” She took a piece of chalk from her pocket and knelt down drawing an intricate symbol on the old concrete. The old lamps around the station lit up with magenta flame as she dropped the chalk and stood back. The bright light of the rift filled the area for a moment as Rofocale stepped through, claws clicking as they hit the floor. 

“Calling me again so soon?” A voice that sounded genderless and ageless purred. Confusion fell across their face seeing more than one person waiting to greet them. “You brought your little friends. And they upgraded, I love the glow effect.”

“Rofocale, listen.”

“You could have kept the cloak. I have quite a few.”

Elise looked up to their black eyes. “We have to talk.”

“Are you breaking up with me?” They laughed, the walls shaking. 

“We were never together but yes. I’m ending our arrangement.”

They leaned down, close to the womans face. “Oh? And why would that be?”

“I can’t keep doing this. I’m human and we’re simply not built to be able to -”

“Human? You still think that? You’re closer to me than any of them.”

“I am human! I’m a human that’s realised that this isn’t right! What I’ve given is more than I could possibly ever take and that can’t go on.”

“You’ve given me a few memories and I’ve given you protection. I’ve reached through time and space itself to help you. How is that swayed in my favour exactly?”

“Our memories make us who we are. Maybe I didn’t realise how valuable they really are but you should have. You were the one who knew what they were doing. You knew the consequences. You preyed on my naivety and took something I can never get back! I’m not throwing away what we had but I am ending it from this point forward.”

They were silent for a moment before pulling themself to their full height. “I knew you had some measure of courage to you but I’m impressed. Not many have had the gaul to try and tell me off. You do realise that you’re throwing yourself to the wolves.”

“Then so be it.”

They smirked. “Fine. You’ll come crawling back eventually but we have eternity. I’ll set you free of me for now. Don’t fret about what you’ve already paid for. I’ll keep my end of the bargain. And as a parting gift take this.” Rofocale crouched and reached for Elises boot, or more the knife she kept hidden inside it. They tapped it and a handful of sparks shot across the floor. “There. And keep the cloak. If you plan to face Asmodei then you’ll need it. His fire is much more destructive than mine.” 

With a flash they disappeared and the lamps extinguished. 

Elise felt arms wrap around her. “I’m so proud of you.” Said Tosh, smiling. Owen hugged both of them and for the first time in a long while Elise felt a warmth she thought she’d lost. A freedom she’d felt when she first got to this time. A fresh start. Tosh giggled as Jack joined in on the group hug.

“That’s it. The moment’s gone, you killed it. You killed it and it’s dead.” Complained Owen, not actually pulling away. 

“I don’t mean to interrupt but what did it give you?” Asked Ianto, pointing to Elises ankle. 

She shrugged and stepped back, taking the folding knife from her boot. It looked the same but it felt different. She held it at arm's length and the blade shot forth, a guard wrapping over her hand, solidifying to become a sword. 

“My sword.” She breathed, a soft smile spreading across her lips. “They gave me the last thing I left there.” The blade morphed back to its original form and she slid it back into her boot.

“Ready to get out of here?” Asked Gwen, her arms wrapped around herself.

“I am. And thank you. All of you.” 

“What are friends for?” 


End file.
